Various species of p-hydroxy benzoic acid esters and their salts have found use as preservatives for foods and beverages as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,046,324; 2,056,176; 3,767,827; 4,366,171 and 4,568,382. Although some of these esters possess preservative properties over a broad spectrum of fungicides, they exhibit low solubility in water which limits their use. Other hydroxy benzoates are effective only against gram positive microorganisms and several of these esters produce residues which are harmful to humans or the environment; accordingly their continued use has been barred.
The foregoing drawbacks limit the selection of totally acceptable and effective fungicidal agents. Moreover, it has been found that closely related compounds exhibit quite different control abilities and microorganism selectivity. For example, heptyl p-hydroxybenzoate has been used at about 10 ppm as a beer preservative to kill saprogenous microorganisms; however it has limited solubility in beer so that the beer becomes turbid at about 0.degree. C. Similar drawbacks are noted for the treatment of soy and other beverages.
To be commercially acceptable, the type of hydroxy benzoate must be moderately water soluble and leave no toxic residue, they should exhibit high activity at low concentrations against a broad spectrum of microorganisms and fungi and they must be economical to prepare and apply. Accordingly it is an object of this invention to achieve these aims in a hydroxy benzoate derivative which is modified so as to balance significantly improved water solubility with high anti microorganism and fungicidal activity against both gram positive and gram negative species. Another object of the invention is to provide non-toxic hydroxy benzoates by an economical and commercially feasible process. These and many other benefits of the invention will become apparent from the following description and disclosure.